To say the St. Louis Blues have the Calgary Flames’ number is an understatement.
Heading into the third and final head-to-head matchup of the season between the Blues (27-30-10) and Flames (26-34-7), St. Louis has won eight straight dating back to Oct. 26, 2023, the longest current winning streak against any opponent and tied for the fourth-longest active streak in the NHL.
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The Blues, who won at Scotiabank Saddledome, 4-2, on Oct. 11, then beat the Flames 3-2 on Nov. 11 in St. Louis, look to make it a clean sweep of the season series on Wednesday in Calgary at 8:30 p.m.
Dating to Dec. 22, 2018, the Blues have won 16 of the past 18 matchups (16-2-0) against the Flames.
But these two teams, currently on the outside looking in at the Western Conference playoff race, seem to be jockeying more for who will have a better chance at the lottery odds for the 2026 NHL Draft to be held in Buffalo June 26-27.
Currently, the Flames (59 points) are 31st in the league standings, which would give them the second-best odds of landing the No. 1 pick behind the Vancouver Canucks, who have 50 points and barring a late-season surge, would have the best odds at landing the top pick. The Blues (64 points), who have won five of six away from home and are 6-1-1 in March, are 28th overall but on the flip side, are seven points behind the Seattle Kraken for the second wild card in the West.
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Each team has 15 games remaining, so how do you handle the situation of wanting to compete and play well, compared to giving yourself the best chance at possibly landing one of the top picks by finishing as low or near the bottom of the league standings.
Meanwhile, the Flames are coming off a road trip in which they lost four of five and are 2-7-1 their past 10 games, while the Blues are 7-2-1 since the Olympic break.
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Dylan Holloway continues to lead the way with nine points (three goals, six assists) in his last seven games, including his 14th goal on Sunday in a 3-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, and 13 points (six goals, seven assists) in 10 games since returning from his right high ankle sprain injury on Feb. 26. Jimmy Snuggerud, named the NHL’s Third Star of the Week on Monday with six points (three goals, three assists) and a plus-5 rating in four games, and Robert Thomas, who had his personal nine-game point streak snapped on Sunday, has 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in his past 10 games. That top line has been an offensive driver.
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The Blues are making three changes to their lineup, with Jonathan Drouin and Otto Stenberg returning along with Tyler Tucker on defense, and making way out are Jonatan Berggren, Oskar Sundqvist and Justin Holl coming out.
With a plethora of bodies and no injuries to report, the team can afford to make changes and look at everyone.
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The Blues have allowed 1.88 goals against per game in March, the fewest in the NHL, and they lead the league with five wins and 10 points on the road in March.
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Blues Projected Lineup:
Dylan Holloway-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud
Jake Neighbours-Pavel Buchnevich-Jordan Kyrou
Jonathan Drouin-Dalibor Dvorsky-Otto Stenberg
Alexey Toropchenko-Jack Finley-Pius Suter
Philip Broberg-Logan Mailloux
Theo Lindstein-Colton Parayko
Cam Fowler-Tyler Tucker
Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup.
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Healthy scratches include Nathan Walker, Matthew Kessel, Jonatan Berggren. The Blues report no injuries.
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Flames Projected Lineup:
Blake Coleman-Mikael Backlund-Joel Farabee
Matvei Gridin-Morgan Frost-Matt Coronato
Yegor Sharangovich-Ryan Strome-Connor Zary
Victor Olofsson-Martin Pospisil-Adam Klapka
Kevin Bahl-Zach Whitecloud
Olli Maatta-Hunter Brzustewicz
Joel Hanley-Zayne Parekh
Devin Cooley will start in goal; Dustin Wolf will be the backup.
Healthy scratches include Ryan Lomberg, John Beecher, Brayden Pachal, Yan Kuznetsov and Tyson Gross. Jake Bean (undisclosed), Samuel Honzek (upper body) and Jonathan Huberdeau (hip) are out.
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